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Abstract

Lexical processing among bilinguals is often affected by complex patterns of individual
experience. In this paper we discuss the psychocentric perspective on language
representation and processing, which highlights the centrality of individual experience
in psycholinguistic experimentation. We discuss applications to the investigation of
lexical processing among multilinguals and explore the advantages of using high-density
experiments with multilinguals. High density experiments are designed to co-index
measures of lexical perception and production, as well as participant profiles. We discuss
the challenges associated with the characterization of participant profiles and present a
new data visualization technique, that we term Facial Profiles. This technique is based
on Chernoff faces developed over 40 years ago. The Facial Profile technique seeks to
overcome some of the challenges associated with the use of Chernoff faces, while
maintaining the core insight that recoding multivariate data as facial features can engage
the human face recognition system and thus enhance our ability to detect and interpret
patterns within multivariate datasets. We demonstrate that Facial Profiles can code
participant characteristics in lexical processing studies by recoding variables such as
reading ability, speaking ability, and listening ability into iconically-related relative sizes of
eye, mouth, and ear, respectively. The balance of ability in bilinguals can be captured by
creating composite facial profiles or Janus Facial Profiles. We demonstrate the use of
Facial Profiles and Janus Facial Profiles in the characterization of participant effects in the
study of lexical perception and production.